Experimental guitarist Jürgen Schwer and electro-acoustic drummer Sebastian Arnold have released their latest collaboration album “Terra Formica”. This time they take you on a journey through the wilderness of a fungus-growing ant population, who aim to escape their daily grind.
All songs on this album build upon instrumental live improvisations and were later compiled into nine songs in Sebastian’s studio in Potsdam. The result is a thrilling ride though cragged post-rock landscapes, funky electronica dub and some krautrock here and there.
I caught up with Jurgen and Sebastian to talk about their early musical experiences, how they started playing music and the making of the new record.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
Sebastian: For me it was The Beatles – my father used to play their Red Album on vinyl in the living room, and I was jumping on the sofa, dancing. I loved their energetic playing and the eclectic harmonies of the songs. Later, I discovered Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ with its funky synth-pop songs. It had such a different sound, very clean and punchy, and that made a big impact to my taste of music in the 90s.
Jürgen: Yes, I can easily join in on The Beatles. I listened to them a lot on the radio and loved their genius melodies. But the biggest impact on me was David Bowie ‘Scary Monsters’. Those jarring sounds and Robert Fripp’s guitar have really burnt into my musical taste, and I keep listening to it until today.
CMM-When did you start playing music and creating songs?
Jürgen: When I was 11, I wanted to learn the organ and started to practice at home. It was much later that I switched to electric guitar. The first songs we wrote when I was 19 in a band called ‘Ragout Schwackfinn’. It was a very complex process, with four people in the band constantly arguing and making deals on what parts to play after another. It turned out as fiddly hardcore jazz with songs that had 23 breaks, and we even had a bigger audience back then.
Sebastian: In my case it was more straightforward. I always liked the drums because they produce so much musical energy and keep everything together. But I had to convince my parents who wanted me to play a melodic instrument instead. At the age of 7 I started to take drum lessons and kept at it for many years. In parallel, I was also getting interested in electronic keyboards, tinkering with the sounds and the rhythm functions of my first Yamaha keyboard. At the age of 9, I started to record my first songs from the keyboard onto a cassette tape. I used the left and right tracks to overdub multiple takes and even had a digital delay effect connected to a mic to experiment with my voice. Interestingly, I didn’t use any percussion or drums – I simply couldn’t bring together the concepts of acoustic drums and the pop music played on the radio back then, those were two distinct worlds for me.
CMM-You recently released a collaboration album called “Terra Formica”. What was the writing and recording process like? What gear and instruments did you use during the sessions?
Sebastian: Jürgen and I have been playing together for over 20 years now, but we’re also separated by 750 kilometres across Germany, that makes it very hard to write music together. But we have this magical musical intuition as soon as we play together. So we started to reverse the process: recording comes first, writing happens in post-production. Whenever we find some time to meet for some days with our instruments, we set up a recording session and collect material to work on.
Jürgen: Everything we do is improvised and spontaneous. Some years ago we have recorded extensive jams that lasted over 20 minutes, but this time we had a different setting. We were meeting in Sebastian’s house in the daytime and the kids were around, so time was short and we focused on more compact songs of 8-9 minutes each, mostly grooves and soundscapes. I have numerous FX pedals for my electric guitar to create sound layers, destroy and beautify my tone. This time, I heavily used Hologram Microcosm granular looper, Red Panda Tensor time warp pedal, Meris Ottobit Jr. bitcrusher, Eventide H9 reverb, Electroharmonix Freeze and a Kaoss Pad. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what’s going on within these loops.
Sebastian: I recorded a stereo track from Jürgen’s guitar, and my drum kit with some microphones. I used a small Gretsch kit with a lot of muffling and a tiny 10″ snare to get that snappy sound. In addition, I set up some trigger pads going into my Elektron Syntakt and Nord Moduler G2 synth to create some additional electric blip and noise effects. In the evenings we had to be more quiet, so I switched to a full electric setup.
Jürgen: Yes, that was the time where I set up my Moog semi-modular synths and the sessions got a little longer.
Sebastian: We captured around 20 ideas this time. After the recording, we always start with listening through the session, marking interesting passages and coming up with first ideas and titles for the songs we want to select. I often start to re-arrange and shorten the sessions to give them a coherent form. Only after that, the real writing process begins. For ‘Terra Formica’, most of my writing went into the bass lines, because those glue the songs together. I overdubbed them playing an electric bass guitar and a Moog Minitaur synth. I also did some hand percussion to spice up the rhythms, field recordings of a train ride, and for ‘Der Alte Funkturm’, I used a shortwave radio receiver to create those broadcast signal sounds.
Jürgen: I came up with added harmonies and melodies on the guitar and some more synthesizer parts. In a few occasions we replaced the original guitar track entirely, but some songs are almost the pure session. I also met with David and recorded his baritone saxophone for two songs. Sebastian and I were exchanging the tracks via e-mail, and he always organizes and integrates them into the mix. It was only in the end that we met again to listen through the final arrangements. We came up with humorous song titles and a story about a colony of ants who are trying to escape from their daily grind. We instantly agreed that with ‘Terra Formica’ we have created the perfect soundtrack for them.
CMM-If you could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
Jürgen: I would have loved to collaborate with Christoph Schliengensief, because his works are intriguing and stressful at the same time, often improvised, but with a strong effect afterwards. I like a mix of science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy, so for sure the movie would be in a futuristic technology setting.
Sebastian: I’m a very visual person and I was always fascinated by the images of ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ by Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke. They both have this eye for the commonalities of naturalistic landscapes and disrupting technology and use it to tell powerful stories. I already played my music live for that movie in a theater, so it would be a dream to do an original score for either of them. Maybe the movie should be about Artificial Intelligence, how it effects our social behaviours and the ecology of our planet.
CMM-Anything coming up?
Sebastian: Both of us have many projects ongoing, and for sure we will continue to record and write material over the long distance. We also hope to get one or two live shows for Arnold/Schwer organized in our home towns in Germany this year, where we plan to recreate our arrangements with a bass player joining us. Apart from that, I’m working on a new album for my ‘mad scientist drummer’ solo performance, where I play drums and synthesizers at the same time. Check out my music here.
Jürgen: I am regularly playing live shows with my modular electronic duo ‘Mironoldi Space Orchestra’ , Funk & Soul band ‘Madam Zzay’ and Klezmer Trio ‘Das Box’, feel free to listen and come see us.
